Until now, a large number of pest controlling agents, such as insecticides and acaricides, have been used. However, many of them are scarcely satisfactory as pest controlling agents for a number of reasons: insufficient efficacy, restrictions on their use due to pesticide resistance problems, phytotoxicity or pollution on plants, or strong toxicity on humans, domestic animals and fishes. Therefore, there has been a desire for the development of pest controlling agents that are applicable safely and have fewer of the above-mentioned drawbacks.
Acrylonitrile derivatives similar to the compounds of the present invention are disclosed in EP 189960, WO97/40009, WO98/42683, WO98/35935, WO99/44993, etc.
Further, WO98/35935 has disclosed compounds represented by the following chemical structure that is shown in the Table I-d thereof. However, there is no description in this reference on their insecticidal and/or acaricidal activities. 